


getting used to the madness

by orphan_account



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Future, Drought, Dystopia, Far Future, Future, Future Fic, Guns, Rain, Snow, Survival, flood - Freeform, josh is some wasteland survivor bih, sage is my best friend who i put in this story hses cool, tylers some rich kid who took errythin for granted HELL YE
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-09 13:30:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13482489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "I wanna go home, please.""Well 'ya can't. Suck it up and shut up.""I'll do anything for you to take me back home.""Listen, Yorker. Life isn't always what you beg for, especially in this wasteland. Solive with it."





	1. Raiders Fuckin' Suck.

**Author's Note:**

> i couldnt help myself ok. this is set in 2178 btwwwwwww  
> uh, the rain is based off of the game rainworld, its a good game and id rec u check it out !

"And stay out Yorker!" One of the raiders shouted, driving away with Tyler's car, which also carried all of his belongings. Fuck. He was screwed. He watched, crumpled on the ground and bleeding all over from the violent beatings he'd just received. Tyler wiped away the tears streaming down his face, jolting back as the car suddenly blew up. Smoke billowed into the air, a man hopping down from some building about a hundred meters away. He wore a hood and wore thick, strapped gloves. 

"Fuckin' raiders!" he screamed, walking past the burning car like it was nothing. The man walked up to Tyler, him gasping and scrambling back, "Yo, calm the fuck down. I won't shoot 'ya. Name's Josh. You?" he held out an extended hand, giving Tyler a lopsided grin underneath his cowl. Tyler stammered before finally answering.

"T-tyler." He took the hand, being yanked to his feet. 

"Looks like 'ya got yerself in a real scrap back there, eh?" Josh spoke, patting Tyler's back roughly, earning a groan of pain. He had some sort of thick accent, nothing Tyler had heard before.

"U-uh, yeah," he replied, voice tremulous. Josh let out a hearty laugh, grabbing Tyler's hands and yanking him along. They walked under some collapsed bridge, going somewhere.

"So, where are 'ya from, squirt?" Josh ruffled Tyler's hair, climbing up some truss on a building. Tyler reluctantly followed, hesitating at each groan and creak of the metal. Josh jumped up most of it, hopping to the top of the small building. Tyler was following soon after, panting loudly. "Yer stamina an' durability tells me yer not from this wasteland." Josh looked up quickly, and squinted, "Hurry up, kid." 

"U-uh, I was exiled from O-old York," Tyler said, shrugging and huffing as he followed Josh up some pile of rocks. He ignored the cuts and bruises he was getting, just focusing on following this strange man. He probably wasn't all that strange in this odd world, though. The wasteland was confusing. Josh chuckled at the statement, grabbing Tylers' arm and throwing him up onto some cracked platform. Tyler screamed as it made an odd sound, Josh just facepalming and climbing up after him.

"Pussy, course yer a fuckin' Yorker! The way ye' react to thin's, the way ye' act," he spat, jumping to a second building. Tyler anxiously stood near the wall, breathing heavy. "Jus' jump! God!" Tyler shook his head, looking down at the twenty-foot drop between the two-foot jump. Josh hopped back over, grabbing Tyler's arm and jumping to the other side. He let out a shriek as he was pulled, shutting his eyes. Josh looked irritated, dragging him down some stairs. He opened his eyes, sighing out of relief. Tyler yelped as he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and slammed against the wall, being met with vicious looking eyes.

"Listen, kid, I'm sick of this shit. You hear that?" he became silent for a moment, loud rumbling sounded from the distance and was slowly growing louder, "If we don't get back to my shelter by the time that shit is over us, we're dead. Got it?" Tyler nodded frantically, Josh letting go of Tyler and rushing out of the building. Tyler ran behind him, rain starting to quietly patter around them. Josh started to full-on sprint, Tyler lagging behind. They both turned into some broken down parking garage, Josh rushing up to an elevator and prying the one door open. "Let's go," he spat, Tyler quickly slipping through the hole. Josh followed, the door slamming shut behind them. The rumbling was loud now and sounded like it was almost right on them. Josh flipped open a hatch on the top, climbing up into the small space and slipping into some crawlspace. Tyler hesitated, whimpering quietly and looking up at the worn away hole, the clouds dark above.

"U-uh, I don't l-like small spaces." 

"STOP FUCKIN' COMPLAINING AND GO!" Josh screamed, crawling down the vent. Tyler clambered in, the rumbling almost deafening. The ground trembled, Josh hopping into some tunnel of sorts and climbing down a ladder. Tyler was quickly following, the roof had a few cracks, so it was open. They quickly ran into some opening for a room, rain pounding down through the cracks. It hit the ground like a tsunami, the ground shaking. Josh slid a large door in front of the crack to prevent a flood, sighing. 

"Yer a fuckin' idiot, ye know that?" Josh hissed, walking up to a broken down truck. It had curtains instead of doors, and from what you could see inside it had been made into a bedroom. He knocked on the side, "YO! SAY!" 

A young, scruffed up girl walked out, rubbing her eyes. She looked at Tyler, stretching.

"Who the fuck is that?" she whisper-yelled to Josh, Tyler standing awkwardly. The girl looked almost *Tyler's age, 19, and had mussed up hair. She was covered in a multitude of bite marks, and from what he could see her entire right leg, knee down was a prosthetic.

"Sage, this is Tyler. He's a Yorker who needed my help or whatever. The rains jus' began so I wasn't gonna leave him to the floods." Sage looked pissed, rubbing her eyes and hopping out.

"We're already low on food as is! I cannot believe you!" She slapped Josh, "Go get undressed! We gotta get comfortable."

"Well, we'll have actual use fer that extra bed."

"Shut up!"

 


	2. Cooped Up.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's hard trying to keep busy while bombs land around you and rain pours like a tsunami is hard, but we manage."
> 
> "A-ah."
> 
> "Honestly? It's just yearly routine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:3c  
> hewwo wewcome two heww  
> im gonya twy two wite towo fics ayt ownce uwu  
> qwawity may dwop nya

Sage was sitting atop the storage, kicking her legs out of boredom. Josh paced around the fire they had set up, thinking about things to do for the week.

Tyler decided to speak up.

"U-uh, why c-can't we go outside?" he stuttered out, "I'm kinda thirst-ty." Josh walked into the storage, grabbing an odd-looking contraption and a massive jug of water. 

" _Sage!_ I'm purifyin' the water!" he yelled out as he set the contraption on the fire. Tyler's question went completely unanswered. Josh started to pour water into a funnel slowly, a loud whistling noise filling the room. The fire went from orange and red to blue and white in seconds, Josh just watching as it poured into a second jug, clear unlike the brown and green of the jug he was pouring. Tyler stared in awe, he only had to turn a tap and they had fresh water, was that really what people had to do out here?

They lived so much differently than Tyler had.

Tyler used to live in a lavish mansion with his parents and family, he used to have toast with peach jelly in the morning, used to huddle by a heater on cold winter days and not huddle by a fire. The rain used to patter on his windows gently, not hammer down onto the rock and sweep everything away. He used to have massive feasts every month with his family, a huge roast in the middle, glasses of juice laced with what was titled _"Liquid Happiness"_ beside each plate. They would laugh and joke as desserts were handed out.

But now? He missed all of that. He missed when the only thing he had to worry about was his high school tests or crushes, about where he was going to live and what he was going to eat for dinner out of the thousands of choices. Now he has to worry about surviving off of pure tooth and bone, whether or not he's even _going_ to eat that night, if he was going to be jumped if he even set one foot outside. 

The sun in Old York used to be yellow, a golden warmth, now it's dull, green almost. The sky is no longer the bright blue it used to be from the fake but effective atmosphere, the clouds a dull yellow. Everything was so different, Tyler found it hard to breathe, especially with the fact that they were probably underwater by now in a parking garage. The whistling finally stopped and the fire popped loudly, turning a blinding white before going back to normal. Josh dragged the jug into the storage and grabbed a bottle, filling it quickly and sealing it. 

"A'ight! One bottle 'erry two days, ration out the food, do NOT eat without my permission." Josh tossed the bottle to Tyler, who yelped and caught it. "Best I tell 'ya whats up." Josh sat beside the fire, face illuminated by the light. Tyler felt so unsafe since it was so dark around them, even though he knew they were the only ones in there. Josh held his own bottle and set up some sort of grill, Sage hopping down and sitting on the other side of the fire. She began setting up food on the grill, Tyler felt sick as she ripped the dog corpse apart. 

"We have'ta stay in here for at least a week, that's when the rains'll stop and the flood will slowly drain away," Josh said simply, watching Sage set the guts on some plastic sheet, "We're well off compared to some survivors, they don't even have a shelter sometimes." He looked solemn, Tyler finally got a good look at him.

Josh, underneath all of his heavy clothing, was quite pale, donning a massive burn scar on his right arm and a metal prosthetic on the left. He had fluffy brown hair that looked kind of soft, even though the man had probably hardly bathed in his life. Josh was average height and had well-defined features. One thing he couldn't help but notice was his gauges and the small tattoo behind his ear. He didn't know that people on the wasteland had access to tattoo machines or piercings. Tyler, of course, had his fair share of tattoos, a few bands on one of his arms and writing on the other, but that's because he lived in Old York beforehand. 

"H-how did you get tattoos?" he queried, looking over to Josh and trying to ignore the ugly squelching sounds of the dog being torn apart for food.

"Hm?" he subconsciously placed a finger on the marking, frowning. "Ah, mark of the raiders. I used 'ta be one, 'till I got myself out of that mess and went alone. My parents were raiders, and tore off m' arm when I first tried t' leave."

"How old were you?"

"I don't remember. I don't even know how old I am. I don't have basic education like y'all Yorkers, I jus' try and get by."

Tyler noticed Josh seemed uncomfortable, and quickly changed the topic.

"S-so... what do we do now?"

"Eat, sleep, play games," Sage said simply.

"Oh."

"It's hard trying to keep busy while bombs land around you and rain pours like a tsunami is hard, but we manage."

"A-ah."

"Honestly? It's just yearly routine." Sage shrugged, leaning back. She slapped hunks of meat onto the grill, a relaxing sizzling sound filling the empty space. Tyler just watched. He was never big on cooking, really, as they had robots who did all that stuff for them. He was confused as Sage just pulled it off, not spicing it or checking it or anything. 

"Y-you forgot the spices," he commented, earning a hard punch from Josh. He cried out, whimpering and backing off. Sage burst into giggles, tearing the massive slab of meat apart with her hands. 

"Listen, Yorker, we aren't gonna go t' hell and back t' get some more flavour. We eat to survive, not jus' fer the taste, a'ight?!" he slapped Tyler hard, watching tears roll down the smaller boys face. "You need t' toughen up and smarten up! Stop thinkin' with yer stupid rich brain and think like someone who actually cares about living!" 

"P-please stop hitting m-me," he whimpered, earning a harsh kick to the face. Blood dripped down his face and into his mouth, he almost gagged at the unfamiliar taste. 

"Shut the fuck up!" Josh's fingers twitched, sitting back down and rubbing the metal stump where his arm used to be. Tyler sat back up, breathing shaky and body just as. Josh looked tired, happily taking the meat that Sage handed him. Tyler took his piece with nervous hands, everything in his mind telling him that this was improper, he needed proper table etiquette. But, etiquette didn't seem to exist here, as Josh and Sage were eating the meat with their hands. Sloppy, messy, so Tyler did so too. It was bland, but it filled the hole in his stomach. 

"So... how did you end up getting exiled?" Sage asked, looking up from her partially eaten slice. Tyler stammered for a moment, voice tremulous as he spoke. 

"I s-strangled my br-brother to death." Sage grinned widely, cackling at his remark.

"Good for you! The bastard probably deserved to die! I was exiled when I was twelve for stabbing a bully. HAH!" Sage was laughing at her words, Josh just looked neutral. Tyler didn't seem to find the situation all that funny, whimpering quietly.

"I-i loved him so m-much, h-he tried t-to sell m-me to a bad man." Sage's laughter died down almost as fast as it started, watching tears slowly roll down the youngest's face. She sighed, giving him a half-assed smile.

"Hey, at least he's dead where he belongs, and you landed with some smart people, not some dumb ass raiders," she said, watching Tyler light up a bit.

"I-i guess so," he let out a quiet chuckle, finishing the slice.


End file.
